About Me

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) website has a lot of genealogical information to offer, problem is, it's not that user-friendly. Can't pinpoint the exact problem, pages too crowded, not enough white space, search terms to general?? but I receive lots of requests from people saying they can't find what they are looking for there. Use the link below. It should bring you to LAC's page on Immigrants at Grosse-Ile. During the 1800's a lot of people fled Europe for Canada, reasons were many. Some were orphans sent over here to help families work the land, and eventually get jobs.
Some were just children whose parents sent them over hear hoping they would have a fine family that would give them a good life. Others were fleeing greedy landlords, many were fleeing disease, starvation and or poverty. Many people who boarded the ships were already infected with contagious disease. Quebec City was the main port into Canada. A quarantine station was set up in 1832 on an island in the St. Lawrence River, at Gross-Ile, to receive these people, and this is where they stayed until they were processed. The station closed in 1937 and is now a historic site.
The data LAC has are:
Births at Sea - 135 people born on ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean 1837-1913
Death at Sea - 4,936 people died on ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean 1832-1922
Hospital Registers - 12,196 people treated at Grosse-Ile 1832-1921
Baptisms at Grosse-Ile - 554 people baptized 1832-1937
Marriages at Grosse-Ile - 46 marriages
Burials at Grosse-Ile - 4, 871 people buried there 1832-1937
Inventories of the Personal Belongings of those who died at Grosse-Ile - 54

Copy that web address into your browser. Read the pages because it's very interesting. To do your actual search refer to the left side of the page close to the top, where you will only see the word Search. Click there, that is where you can type in your ancestor's name.

The purpose of this blog is to help people researching their ancestry in Carleton and Lanark Counties, Ontario, Canada. I help others with their research and in so doing have come across a lot of information that would most likely be of interest to others as well. Once I figure how to upload information from my computer, you should find this site very interesting. Topics you should find here soon: The Nile Voyageurs (index of men who left from Ottawa to help the British in Khartoum in 1884; list of men whom Ruggles Wright recruited from England in 1816; List of people who attended Ottawa Collegiate Institute; list of research books I own, and can do look-ups for people etc.; and lots and lots of other interesting stuff. One of my many hobbies is indexing books that were created without an index. Books printed long ago often did not have an index but yet are full of surnames. I have taken on this task somewhat, and will publish those indexes here as I finish them.
So check back here later to see what I have put up. Let me go now and figure out how to upload data. Thank you. Karen